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ricks99's avatar
ricks99
Explorer
Mar 27, 2018

City water or On-board tank?

Can anyone provide specific reasons why one is better than another?

I see a lot of folks who fill/use their tanks even at a site with city water hookup.

I understand that you may want to have some water while traveling (e.g., to use the sink, toilet, etc) but when camping, why? I had assumed that using city water would always be preferable (less wear/tear on the pump, one less thing to break, etc), to using my on-board, fresh water tank, but I'm not sure.

When camping at a site with city water, do you use your fresh-water tank? Why or why not?

56 Replies

  • We snowbird so we set up for a few months.
    Almost every year somebody runs over a water spigot and the park has to shut off the water for a day or two.
    First thing I do now is fill the tank when we settle in.
    You learn these things.
  • On our winter trip, we hit about 30 campgrounds all over the southeast. We hooked up to their water. I never had an issue with taste or smell. I have an inline sediment filter and we Brita our drinking water. The Sahara also has a built-in pressure regulator.
  • Mr. Rick, just off the top of my head, using your fresh water tank regularly will keep the water fresher.

    On our coach (I know it's out of the norm), is plumbed to use the fresh water tank only. We have two holding tanks, one for fresh water (189 gallons) and one tank for black AND grey water (189 gallons). I don't need to connect to water every time we stop.

    When I use the city water outlet, it is only to add fresh water to our tank. The plus, is that I don't have to worry about the city water pressure being too low or too high as our water pump is used all the time. We do have a built-in pressure regulator for incoming city water.

    I've always felt that all parts and pumps work better when used regularly.

    Safe travels,
    MM.
  • Not all "city water" is created the same, some better, some worse, and some from a well.
  • ricks99 wrote:
    When camping at a site with city water, do you use your fresh-water tank? Why or why not?


    Rarely would I use on-site city water hookup and instead almost always draw from our tank. The reason - most of our camping is in provincial and US state parks where on-site water isn't available anyway, which in turn means I always have all the equipment needed to source more potable water and transfer it into the trailer's FW holding tank. I guess my second reason is I've read enough stories over the years about those who've left their site for the day only to come back to a flooded trailer. :E Sure, one can and should remember to turn off the incoming water supply anytime they're not around to keep an eye on things but I've found that gets old really quickly and I often forget. I likewise could forget to turn my water pump off before leaving our site but for whatever reason I usually do remember, maybe because the switch is right there inside the camper and hard to miss. Aside from that, not hooking up to city water means I don't ever have to fool around with a clogged up regulator and the small length of hose I do carry "just in case" is tucked well away in the camper as I rarely need it. JMO, but not hooking up just works better for me. :)